The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music

Very good book with very detailed articles, discographies, and great pictures

It was everything I wanted and more! This book is the most beautiful thing I own. I consider it my prized possession. When I first opened up the box it came in, tear of joy streamed down my face because I knew it had finally came. This book will help you move mountains and transcend spacial boundaries. From the moment I caressed its slightly warm paper back cover (because it was used) I knew this was my true god and that just by holding it I was home. In short if you by this book it will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

I loaned this book to a radio DJ friend from The Day. He loved it so much will use it for reference on his radio show. I will order another copy for myself. It is a fantastic overview of the history of rock and roll with many authors from the era.

The book is of interest to any rock historian, or to anyone interested in history from the birth of rock and roll around 1953 through the 1960s and into the 1970s. The book is in black and white, no color, and some of the script is also black and white, that is, it does a good job of chronicling the major influences of rock from the beginning until the end of classic rock and metal, sometimes insightfully, sometimes in a Wikipedia-style of writing. This is like the meat and potatoes version of rock history.It offers this interesting insight on The Who, "A big part of the Who's glory was its anger, its hostility," definitly true, "and a big part of that came from the utter frustation of not breaking through to a bigger audiance." Don't reall think the Who's anger came from not being able to break through to a bigger audiance. It was a part of who they were. In the section on Elton John, it more or less choronologizes his works, but does little to offer insight into who Elton John was, what drove him, his hangups, problems with drugs and alcohol, it gives you a straight glimpse of his music through the ears and eyes of music, as a history.So, for the researcher looking for a straight, neatly organized, easy to digest history, with some quotable inisghts, it does fairly well. If you are looking to go a little deeper, there are probably other works which may give more insight into the artists, their lives, and what moved them, drove them, their loves and demons, etc.

This is an amazing collection of photographs! I read a copy in 1978 and the caption under the photo of Lloyd Price and his dad said "they don't make jackets like Lloyd's anymore" ( the jacket was straight 50s - 60s "cool")This and others has been edited from this edition and we are left poorer for it. The amoral,amorphous "polit - correct - speak" has made cowards of us all and taken the pith and moment out of the English language these days.The photos are the heart of the book and for this, this marvellous snapshot into the musical past is, as Little Richard said of himself; "worth it!"Wilbur the Love Goat says;Luv Ya!

I ordered this book for my Stepdad for Father's Day, as he loves rock music and having lots of fun trivia facts up his sleeve. My stepdad is sometimes hard to please.. and he's generally not a big book reader. This book was a huge hit! He sat down to read the book immediately after opening it and sat until he had looked through the whole thing. I am very pleased with this purchase!

This was purchased for my daughter for her college 70s and 80s Rock History Class. She loves music so much and this book was a great addition for her class and for her collection after the class was over.

The binding on this book was bad. When I opened it up, the pages immediately separated from the spine. The book just fell apart. I was disappointed in the book itself as well. I was hoping for lots of great color photos. Just some black and white photos among the text. I ended up tossing it in the trash.

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Gute Aufarbeitung des Rock'n'Roll mit viel Fach- und Sachkenntnis. Das Buch ist eher für ein Studium zu Hause gedacht (A4 Format mit fast 700 Seiten). Zusammenhänge zwischen den "Epizentren" USA und Großbritannien werden gut dargestellt. Nur 4 Sterne gibt's aufgrund des fehlenden Updates (letzte Aktualisierung 1992) und der teilweise nicht richtig ausgewogenen Würdigung einzelner Interpreten (dass z.B. Sly and The Family Stone oder The Band doppelt so viel Platz einnehmen wie Led Zeppelin ist "objektiv" nicht korrekt. Andererseits muss man sich die Zeps aber ohnehin separat zu Gemüte führen ("When The Giants Walked The Earth")).